


Trigger

by Hellokaelyn



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Post-Episode: s16e10 What Child Is This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 18:43:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17126711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellokaelyn/pseuds/Hellokaelyn
Summary: Ellie isn't as okay as she seemed.





	Trigger

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by shippergirl7572 on Tumblr :) ❤

On that Friday evening Ellie stood in Nick’s kitchen, towel in hand as she dried the dishes she had just cleaned. 

Before heading home for the day and hopefully the weekend, Nick had invited her to come to his for dinner, luring her in with a home cooked meal. Ellie didn’t even have to think before agreeing, how could she turn down food? And food he had cooked at that? She constantly found herself jealous of how good of a cook he was. With Nick being the one to do all the work food wise, she had offered to wash all the dishes.

“You sure I can’t help?” Nick called from the bedroom where he was putting away laundry that was left out when he had got called to work early this morning. 

“I’m fine Nick!” She called back. 

As she started putting the plates away in their right place, it hit her how domestic this all was. She didn’t even  _ live _ here, yet she was not only doing the dishes but she knew exactly where to put them away. A smile came to her lips. It made it obvious she was over at his place a lot, and she knew without a doubt he knew the same with her apartment. 

Ellie reached for another plate just as a bang sounded from outside. In her mind she knew it wasn’t anything, but still her chest felt tight as she struggled to catch her breath. Her hands shook making the plate slip from her fingers crashing to the floor, the sound of the plate shattering as it hit the floor was the final blow.

Her mind clouded over, and suddenly she was back in that apartment with Vicious pointing his gun at Nick and then her. 

* * *

Nick barely reacted when he heard the car backfiring outside. It wasn’t until he heard the noise of something breaking in the kitchen that he jerked back, his head snapping towards the doorway. 

“Ellie?” Nick called as he rushed to the kitchen, right away spotting her surrounded by a broken plate as she was gripping the counter looking as if she was going to drop to the floor at any moment. 

He didn’t even think about it as he shoved the broken pieces of the plate away with his foot making sure she didn’t hurt herself. 

“Ellie? Can you hear me?” He said loudly but his voice soft as he carefully put his hands on her arms.

When she didn’t react to his touch, he lowered her to the floor crouching down in front of her.

Ellie was struggling to take deep breaths, her eyes clenched shut as her body shook. 

Nick swallowed to control his emotions. He needed to focus on  _ her _ right now. 

Softly he cupped her face in his hands. 

“Ellie?” He made sure his voice was soothing. “Hey if you can hear me, squeeze my hand-” Nick moved one hand from her face to hold her hand, threading his fingers with hers.

* * *

Ellie’s heart raced as Vicious pulled his gun on Nick, making all three of them pull their guns out in record time. She couldn’t hear what was being said, the words sounding muffled. Her eyes were locked on the scene in front of her, fear that he would shoot Nick spreading through her. 

She felt her mouth move as she tried to talk him down. She  _ needed _ to get the gun away from Nick. Her own words didn’t reach her ears but in seconds Vicious had the gun suddenly aimed at her.

Ellie practically  _ felt _ the bullet go past her, the sound unlike the talking wasn’t muffled, as the glass shattered behind her and Gibbs along with Nick shot Vicious, she stumbled back holding her ear as it rang painfully. 

“Ellie?” She heard, the first words that she could actually  _ hear _ . She could see Gibbs moving his lips but  _ knew _ it wasn’t him she heard. “-squeeze my hand-”

She took a gasping breath. 

That was  _ Nick’s _ voice. 

It seemed to ring in her head, feeling as if it was filling the room. 

“Squeeze my hand Ellie.” 

* * *

Nick saw her mouth move as she mouthed words but no sound came out. He couldn’t tell what she was mouthing but one thing. His name. 

“Squeeze my hand Ellie.” He spoke a little louder, his tone still soft but a little more demanding.

It only took seconds for her to squeeze his hand. 

Nick closed his eyes and breathed a little sigh of relief. 

“Ellie, I need you to open your eyes for me okay?” He rubbed his thumb over her cheek. 

She finally stopped trying to take gasps of air, her chest no longer rising and falling as she was trying to take breaths. Her eyes fluttered a little but didn’t open, but a little whimper escaped her lips.

Nick squeezed her hand, his thumb continuing to move across her cheek. 

“You’re safe Ellie, okay? I’m not going anywhere.” 

“Nick..” Her voice so low he barely heard it.

“Yeah it’s me-” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Open your eyes for me beautiful.”

Her eyes fluttered again, he kept his gaze on her as they slowly started to open. 

A smile came to his lips. 

“Nick?” It came out as a hoarse whisper but finally his heart settled in his chest.  _ She was okay _ .

“I’m right here.” 

Finally she looked at him, her eyes slowly focusing and the cloudy expression in them fading away little by little.

“Nick?”

“Yeah Ellie?”

“Why am I on the floor?” 

Even though her voice was still hoarse sounding, Nick chuckled a little in relief and rested his forehead against hers. 

“You had a panic attack, it must have been the car backfiring and then you dropped a plate because of it-” 

She blinked and moving a little bit away from him looked behind him to the broken pieces.

“I’m sorry..”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “Uh why?”

“I broke your plate.” She mumbled. 

He shook his head chuckling once more. “Ellie I care about you, not the plate.”

“You  _ liked _ that plate.” 

“Babe, it’s just a plate.” 

Finally it seemed as if the little cloudiness surrounding her disappeared, her eyes snapped to his. 

“You haven’t called me babe since the Kohl case.” Ellie whispered.

“I thought you hated it.” Nick said, a little teasing in his voice.

Ellie smiled a little before leaning towards him. Nick wrapped his arms around her, fully dropping onto the floor as he pulled her close to him. 

Nick knew he would be giving Jack a call later when Ellie wasn’t around to hear. She needed to talk to someone and as much as he wanted it to be him, he knew she needed actual help. He worried about her after they had returned the baby to his adopted parents. Nick knew from experience that you didn’t walk away from a near death experience without  _ something _ . 

No matter what though, he’d be there right beside her. 


End file.
